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ARGEX - Amphibious Ready Group Exercise

The Marines and Sailors of the Marine Expeditionary Unit move one step closer to deployment with the undertaking of their Amphibious Ready Group Exercise (ARGEX), which keeps the unit at sea and in the field for several weeks. ARGEX was formerly known as the Marine Expeditionary Unit Exercise (MEUEX), and is part of the MEU's standard pre-deployment training package. The exercise is designed to integrate the MEU into its assigned amphibious ready group (ARG) and ensure the unit is capable of successfully completing the myriad of missions it may be assigned while acting as the landing force for the Fleet. Such missions include, but are not limited to, embassy reinforcement and evacuation, humanitarian assistance, the tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel, mass casualty situations, and non-combatant evacuation operations. Following ARGEX, the remaining hurdle for the MEU's quest for its Special Operations Capable (SOC) designation and subsequent deployment is the SOC Exercise (SOCEX). Each of the MEU's major elements are brought together for the exercise.

When the artillerymen of Charlie Battery, 1st Battalion, 10th Marines trudged across the sands of Onslow Beach, they did so without their M198 155mm Howitzers in tow. Instead, the battery carried riot shields, shotguns, and most importantly, the knowledge that the training mission they were preparing to carry out might soon become a reality. As the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit's (MEU's) designated embassy reinforcement force, Charlie Battery conducted a mock embassy reinforcement aboard MCAS New River as part of the 22d MEU's Amphibious Ready Group Exercise (ARGEX). The embassy reinforcement is a secondary mission, yet the more likely of the two to execute since few missions the MEU performs warrant the employment of artillery. In recent years, Marines deployed with the Corps' seven MEUs have performed a number of embassy reinforcements, including missions in such far-flung lands as Liberia, Kenya, Somalia and Albania. Two days into ARGEX, the MEU, floating offshore aboard the USS Wasp, Trenton and Oak Hill, received word that an American "embassy" was being threatened by internal turmoil and regional instability. Within hours, the approximately 100-man battery and its supporting attachments were brought ashore by Navy landing craft and tactically moved to the compound.